columbia gorge

This place is highlighted in my book, Peaceful Places: Portland. There’s this point, just past Washougal, where you officially enter The Gorge. I don’t know if that’s geologically true, but it’s officially true: there’s a big sign for Columbia River Gorge National Scenic Area, and perfectly enough, it’s right past the sewage treatment plant! This…

I made my annual wildflower/conditioning hike up Dog Mountain in the Columbia River Gorge this last week. For us Portland hikers, this is one of our highlight hikes — so much so, I don’t go anywhere near it on a weekend this time of year. The weekend before Memorial Day, the trailhead parking lot was…

The Oregonian’s Terry Richard says he found the Columbia Gorge wildflower season to be a bit meager this year. He has high hopes for the Dog Mountain hike, as do I; I’m headed there next week to try to catch the peak bloom. Anybody else have experiences to relate? What’s your impression of the flower…

A while back, I wrote a piece for The Oregonian about people who like to hike lost trails around Oregon — or who just wander off-trail looking for adventure or old stuff that was left out there. You can read that piece here. Well, since it ran, I’ve gotten a couple of requests along the…

Every year about this time, one of the most popular hikes around is to the top of Dog Mountain. That’s because the whole top of the mountain is a big meadow covered in wildflowers, the most conspicuous being balsamroot: Now, imagine about a million of those blooming all at one, 3,000 feet above the Columbia…